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| Book cover of Earthspinner |
-Brian Mendonca
In the last book of the Mahabharata - the Swargarohan Parva [Book of the Ascent to Heaven] - the Pandavas renounce the world and begin their ascent heavenward towards Mount Meru. Among all the five Yudhisthira is invited to heaven because he embodies justice and righteousness.
However he says he will do so only on one condition - the dog accompanying him on his journey thus far should also be give the same privilege. Lord Indra, the charioteer, is appalled. He says how can this be? Besides, the dog is old and worthless. Yudhisthira is adamant. Indra reveals himself and admits Yudhisthira. The dog transforms into Dharma.
This episode comes to my mind after finishing reading The Earthspinner (2021) by Anuradha Roy. The episode, as it were, frames the narrative. In a world where humans and animals are on the same plane, the travails of Chinna are stuff of an epic to say the least. The dog is the thread which steers the story, whether in action or in memory. Chinna a.k.a. Tashi has the last word.
This is a work of an unhurried writer. Roy takes her time teasing out the plot. Her canvas is large, crisscrossing continents yet at home in Kummarapet [The city of potters] which she summons up like Malgudi. From a dank scholar's room in faraway England the narrator pines for home tucked away in the folds of Andhra Pradesh. She misses her language, she misses her sister (sometimes), and yes the potter Elango. Most of all she misses her father who went early. Roy puts it vividly:
Sitting here across the oceans, at this table where I can't see into the darkness beyond the disc of light from my lamp, I see a face reflected back at me in the window glass, and it as if I am in the room, but my face is outside, asking to be let in. I don't know this face. I need to work out how to reassemble myself. (18)
She beats the blues by making glorious dal and rice: 'I ate it all, with my fingers in the privacy of my room, wishing Elango were there to share my emancipation from the tyranny of cutlery.' (209) Weighed down with jeera, dhania, masoor, and mung from the Pakistani shop round the corner she is the victim of a racist attack and abuse.
When Roy touches the ache deep inside the narrator the reader connects with it - like grieving over the loss of a father. As she tries to move on, she gives us hope to do so as well. She finds the words we want to say.
The presence of evil is reflected unflinchingly. People get battered. Planes go down. Leaders are shot. Land is gobbled up by sharks. It is best to value the present.
The characters are nuanced - everyone has a role to play like in a drama. Akka plays hers to the hilt. Usman Bhai's poring over the Baburnama to redeem his calligraphic skill is so poetic. As the characters age and evolve the village becomes a microcosm extending its branches through various migrations.
The language is spry and at times lyrical. The astonishingly pithy descriptions - 'white battlefield' is one - reveal Roy's forte. Her f's and b's (and c's) leap off the page and catch one unawares. But they are timely and apt, providing the earthing to an edifice. Typeset in Sabon the generous leading makes it a delight to read the hardback.
From the captivating title - Earthspinner - one is riveted to the novel. There are potters everywhere but to elevate the exercise into a cosmic activity is generous. Namdeo Dhasal is particularly acerbic in his poem on 'Stonemasons, My Father and Me'.
The creation of the mythic horse underpins the novel. In the cover the horse is being devoured by flames. Much like Picasso's Guernica it is a statement about the intolerance in society. The epigraph from Kabir reminds us that:
आपैं पूरिखा आपैं नारी ।।
आप सदाफल आपैं नींबू ।
आपैं मुसलमांन आपैं हिंदू ।।
आपैं मछ कछ आपैं जाल ।
आपैं झींवर आपैं काल ।।
कहै कबीर हम नांहीं रे नांहीं ।
नां हम जीवन न मुयेले मांहीं ।।
[I'm bowl
and I am platter
I'm man
And I'm woman
I'm Hindu
and I'm Muslim
And I'm sweet lime
I'm fish
And I'm net
I'm fisherman
And I'm time
Says Kabir
I'm not among the living
Or the dead
Pic of The Earthspinner by Anuradha Roy (Hachette, 2021) taken by Brian Mendonca. Made available by thedogearsbookshop(dot)com. Verse and translation of Kabir from guftugu(dot)in featuring Songs of Kabir by A.K. Mehrotra (Hachette, 2011). Updated 12 Dec. 2021.
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